TRUE FREEDOMS

By
Bao Lam
History 001
1

The American society portrayed Black and White as two separated world, even
though they lived together and used the same laws. The Black people struggled for
survival when being refused admission at public areas, paying low at works or their
seats were always in the back areas. Segregation and discrimination existed in many
areas in the South, which included transportation, schools, neighborhoods and public
areas. As the results, the social conflict in Southern between Whites and Blacks
happened. However, freedom rides were also consisted of both Blacks and Whites
riding together to defeat Jim Crow laws, which were unfair segregation.
During the Reconstruction period of 18651877, federal law provided civil rights
protection in the U.S. South for freedmen the African Americans who had formerly
been slaves. In the 1870s, Democrats regained power in the Southern States
legislatures and started to attack Blacks or preventing them from voting. The
culmination of this oppression is the introduction of the Jim Craw laws, which is directed
against blacks by segregating black people from the white population.
The matter of fact, even though Abraham Lincoln found it needed to free the
slave and introduced the 13
th
, 14
th
and 15
th
Amendment to protect their rights, his efforts
were denied by the protesters in the Southern States. They tried to deny the legal rights
of black people although they are an inseparable part of American history.
In that period, each public place served the colored and the white people
separately. They had different door for colored person. They had different waiting room
at the bus station. They even taught the white children and the black children in different
classes and not using the same textbook. Those are what you can never think of in this
time but it happened in The United States in 1900s. The protesters tried to convince
2

that the black people was treated separate but equal. The phrase was derived from a
Louisiana law of 1890, although the law actually used the phrase "equal but separate."
Some states legislatures introduced law that prohibited the interaction between the
colored and the white people as in this quote below:
"no athletic team of any school shall engage in any athletic contest of
any nature within the state of Virginia with another team on which persons
of any other race are members."
Virginia State Law 1960
A memorable event in this time is the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1896 case of
Plessy v. Ferguson. In 1890, the state of Louisiana passed a law - the Separate Car Act
- that required separate accommodations for blacks and whites on railroads, including
separate railway cars. Plessy was born a free man and was an "octoroon" (someone of
seven-eighths Caucasian descent and one-eighth African descent). However, under
Louisiana law, he was classified as black, and therefore required to sit in the "colored"
car. He was arrested for sitting in the car for the whites and denied to move backward.
In his case, Plessy argued that the state law which required East Louisiana Railroad to
segregate trains had denied him his rights under the Thirteenth and Fourteenth
Amendments of the United States Constitution. However, the judge in this case, John
Howard Ferguson, said that Louisiana had the right to regulate railroad companies as
long as they operated within state boundaries. Plessy was convicted and sentenced to
pay a $25 fine. This case leaded to a further struggle of African Americans called
freedom riders.
3

Montgomery, Alabama where African Americans refused to ride the busses until
they got to sit in front of the bus. Freedom rides were a big step they made. Freedom
riders pointed out that everyone is equal, no matter which colors ones are. We have the
rights to live up our ideals. They taught me that courage and determination could win
and change the world. The roles and classes in society are not the most important if
each individual, who is from different cultures, customs and believes, corporates
together and stand up for what they supposed to have. Freedom ride is a good example
for what Martin stated, Some conflict may be due to political or cultural differences, but
other conflicts occur during social movements, in which individuals work together to
bring about social change (p.240). They had have open the doors for the blacks, so
that they could move forward in their lives. One more thing I learned from them is that
violence is not only way to confront a conflict and nonviolent resistance is not a method
for cowards (p.240). Freedom riders did not use violence during their fighting, but their
desires and actions point out the injustices of segregation. They were brave to put their
lives on the line to change a destiny of many people and even the U.S. country. If they
did not stand up and do what they did, everything would have been different today.
Later, the struggles to gain equal rights for the blacks and colored people had
come to more effective ways. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored
People (NAACP) founded in 1910. This civil rights organization brought lawsuits against
discriminatory practices and published The Crisis, a journal edited by African-American
scholar W. E. B. Du Bois. Du Bois was born after emancipation in Massachusetts. He
earned his Ph.D. at Harvard University. Du Bois studied and researched the lives of
African Americans. The more he learned, the more he believed that the only way black
4

Americans could gain civil rights was through protest and activism. Du Bois used his
influences to help the blacks in both private areas and in the government by writing an
editorial in 1914 deploring the dismissal of blacks from federal posts. His contribution to
the struggle for black peoples right had a big impact in the further efforts in gaining true
freedom for the blacks.
Another famous advocate for equal rights of African-Americans is Martin Luther
King, Jr. He was an American clergyman, activist, humanitarian, and leader in the
African-American Civil Rights Movement. He once said I have a dream that my four
little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of
their skin, but by the content of their character. He was always worrying about the true
freedom of African-American for many years. He led the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott
and helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in 1957, and
became its first president. With the SCLC, King led a struggle against segregation in
Albany, Georgia, in 1962 but it wasnt successful. He also organized nonviolent protests
in Birmingham, Alabama, that gained national attention following television news
coverage of the cruel police response. All of his activities has been spread to many
countries and became the motivation for the struggle of the African-American many
years later.
Although the blacks have been inequitably treated after they gained their
freedom in the Civil War, they are an irreplaceable part of the U.S history. They sought
the true freedom for many years. They fought for their equivalent in the society. Through
many activists, the black people finally gained their respect.

5

Reference
- Martin, J.N. & Nakayama, T.K. (2013). Experiencing Intercultural Communication
(6
th
ed.) New York: McGraw Hill.
- Virginia State Law 1960
- http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/martin_luther_king_jr_2.html